Memoirs Worth Reading

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I'm interested in reading memoirs, but, given the hoopla over James Frey, I'm wondering if they can be trusted anymore. Your thoughts?

Ellen responds:
Caveat emptor (buyer beware). The memoir craze that washed over America in the 1990s produced some terrific books, including two mega-sellers: Mary Karr's The Liars' Club and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. But the trend also yielded a lot of what I jokingly call the memoir manqué -- books that are vaguely autobiographical but stretch the truth beyond recognition. Why? Because the added drama can pump up sales.

Emotional truth is one thing, but a writer must build on the facts or call it fiction. An excellent example is John McGahern's newly published memoir, All Will Be Well. McGahern's story of growing up in Ireland has some similarities to Angela's Ashes. Although his family didn't emigrate to the United States as McCourt's did, he paints a similar picture built around a beloved mother who died young, a difficult father and an unyielding Catholic culture.

McGahern writes so beautifully and insightfully that there's no need to varnish the truth. Remembering an evening walk with his mother after she returned from the hospital when he was about seven, the writer describes himself as almost delirious with happiness: "I was safe in her shadow. My chattering at times grew so wild that Mother let go of my hand and placed her fingers on my lips in reproof and amusement and love."

Looking back, here are some other memoirs, all available in paperback, that I recommend:

Autobiography of a Face, by Lucy Grealy (1994) and Truth & Beauty: A Friendship, by Ann Patchett (2004). When she was just nine years old, Lucy Grealy fought a potentially fatal cancer that required her to have a third of her jaw removed. Her book is the story of dealing with her disease and her disfigurement. It finds a fitting coda in Ann Patchett's subsequent story of her problematical but enduring friendship with Grealy, who died in 2002.

Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman, by Nuala O'Faolain (1998) -- another story from an Irish writer about a difficult childhood and the struggle to become whole.

Daughter of the Queen of Sheba, by Jacki Lyden (1997) -- the tale of living with and loving a mentally ill mother.

The Last Gift of Time: Life Beyond Sixty, by Carolyn G. Heilbrun (1997) -- insights into the rewards of getting older.